Incoming Rensselaer County DA names chief assistant

Mary Pat Donnelly, the Democratic candidate for Rensselaer County District Attorney, thanks all her supporters at Ryan's Wake where Rensselaer County Democrats were watching the results come in during election night on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018 in Troy, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union) less

Mary Pat Donnelly, the Democratic candidate for Rensselaer County District Attorney, thanks all her supporters at Ryan's Wake where Rensselaer County Democrats were watching the results come in during election ... more

Mary Pat Donnelly, the Democratic candidate for Rensselaer County District Attorney, thanks all her supporters at Ryan's Wake where Rensselaer County Democrats were watching the results come in during election night on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018 in Troy, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union) less

Mary Pat Donnelly, the Democratic candidate for Rensselaer County District Attorney, thanks all her supporters at Ryan's Wake where Rensselaer County Democrats were watching the results come in during election ... more

TROY – Rensselaer County District Attorney-elect Mary Pat Donnelly has selected an experienced prosecutor for her first assistant district attorney as she begins building her staff in time for the beginning of her term on Jan. 1.

Matthew Hauf, a former member of the Albany County District Attorney Office’s Major Offense Unit, will be Donnelly’s chief assistant. Hauf prosecuted violent felonies and property crimes as a member of that unit.

Donnelly selected Hauf Friday. She notified the other candidates that she had interviewed to let them know about her decision.

As the Donnelly’s chief assistant, Hauf will receive a salary of $112,200, according to the recently approved county budget for 2019. In addition to Hauf, Donnelly will have 14 assistant district attorneys. Donnelly pledged to provide better administration of the office to ensure cases are prosecuted on a timely basis and to halt the turnover in assistant district attorneys.

Donnelly’s selection of Hauf came the day after she interviewed the assistant district attorneys still remaining on incumbent Republican District Attorney Joel E. Abelove’s staff. Abelove faced difficulties in retaining staff throughout his four years in office.

Donnelly last month defeated Abelove, 55 percent to 45 percent, to win the district attorney’s race. Donnelly resigned as East Greenbush town justice to run.

Hauf will take over the position vacated by First Assistant District Attorney Jessica Hall, who recently resigned. Hall had been Abelove’s second-in-command throughout his entire term.

Hauf is a graduate of Albany Law School. He began his career with Albany County District Attorney David Soares as an intern while attending law school. Hauf worked as a prosecutor for eight years, leaving in 2016 to join the county alternate public defender’s office. In Rensselaer County, it is called the conflict defender’s office.

When Hauf left Soares’ staff, he said, “The district attorney's office afforded me the opportunity to learn how to be an attorney and hone my skills in the courtroom.”

Donnelly will assume command of an office that will face two major murder trials in 2019.

The nearly year-old quadruple homicide in Troy’s Lansingburgh neighborhood stunned the Capital Region when the victims’ bodies were discovered the day after Christmas.

Justin Mann and James W. White, both of Schenectady are each charged with nine counts of first-degree murder, four counts of second-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary, one count of second-degree robbery and two counts of fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. They are accused of killing Brandi Mells, 22; Shanta Myers, 36; Jeremiah Myers, 11; and Shanise Myers, 5, by tying them up and slashing their throats in their basement apartment at 158 Second Ave.

Motions are pending in the case. A trial date has not yet been set.

The other case is a 2016 double homicide in which two Troy roommates, Cristian Gonzalez Hernandez and Javier Gomez Bartolon, were killed. The two men were Mexican nationals as were the four men originally charged with their deaths.

This case has been presented to the grand jury three times after Abelove’s office did not provide corroborating evidence to back up an accomplice’s testimony. Two murder indictments against Cresencio Salazar were dismissed and he was handed over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.

State Supreme Court Justice Andrew Ceresia is reviewing motions pending for the third indictment of Alfredo Monge Guevara and Salomon Najera Hernandez, who are accused of killing the roommates. Salomon Najera Hernandez and Cristian Gonzalez Hernandez were not related.

The fourth defendant, Magdaleno Perez Calixto, is awaiting sentencing for his December 2017 guilty plea to burglary and kidnapping charges. His sentencing date is Jan. 4.